I’m not just a print reporter; I tell my stories beyond the written word.
TEDx JACKSONVILLE
For years, the former Butler Middle School struggled with low academic achievement, discipline problems, declining enrollment, a tough reputation and little parent involvement. But for the 2014-15 school year, Duval County Public Schools decided to overhaul the troubled school and create two single-gender schools.
Though preliminary, the results so far are encouraging. Tessa Duvall discusses the inequalities that so many students face: poverty, hunger, family struggles, and more. It’s easy to write off a school’s problems as simply bad kids, lazy teachers and absentee parents. But it’s never that simple.
SPECIAL REPORT: WHEN KIDS KILL
In creating this special report, “When Kids Kill,” enterprise reporter Tessa Duvall of The Florida Times-Union wrote letters to 103 current Florida inmates from Duval County who are serving prison sentences for murder or manslaughter charges brought in connection with crimes committed before they turned 18. Fifty-seven of the 103 inmates wrote back, with many sharing extensive details of their lives. The Times-Union received hundreds of pages of letters as well as poetry, song lyrics and drawings.
Of the respondents, 25 completed an extensive survey Duvall designed with input from experts in their respective fields. They included a pediatrician who works with justice-involved children, a psychology professor, a criminology professor, a child psychologist, a youth advocate who herself was incarcerated as a juvenile and a man who was originally sentenced to life in prison as a juvenile but whose sentence was later reduced to 25 years.
BEING TERRENCE GRAHAM
When Terrence Graham was arrested at 16 for the armed burglary of a Jacksonville restaurant, he couldn’t have known his case would eventually alter how juveniles are sentenced for serious crimes. He couldn’t have known people would be released from prison because of him. He couldn’t have known he’d still be behind bars today. Reporter Tessa Duvall takes a close look at the local landmark case that forever changed the justice system.